St. Joseph's College To Reopen For Fall 2020

PATCHOGUE, NY — St. Joseph's College announced it will reopen both campuses in Patchogue and Brooklyn for the fall 2020 semester. Class are set to begin on Sept. 9, 2020. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the college will offer a combination of remote, hybrid, on-ground and online courses in order to keep students safe.

"The health and safety of the college community is our highest priority, and our return-to-campus plans will closely follow New York State Department of Health guidelines to ensure we provide the SJC community with an enhanced safe and secure place to learn, teach and work," SJC President Donald R. Boomgaarden, Ph.D," said.

The college's multi-faceted approach to re-opening its Patchogue and Brooklyn campuses will include the following strategies:

• The remote option involves students meeting with faculty members and classmates at regularly scheduled times, using Zoom or a similar video conferencing platform, with the courses built around the Canvas learning management system. Given the social distancing requirements related to COVID-19, many courses taught this fall will be using this option.
• The hybrid option combines the remote option with an on-ground component. Students will come to campus for class for half of the course sessions and the other half of instruction/interaction would take place remotely as described above. An example of this would be for a class that normally meets on Mondays and Wednesdays — with half of the classes coming to campus on Mondays and the other half coming on Wednesdays — with the remainder of the instruction/interactions taking place remotely.
• Students taking a class with the on-ground option would come to campus in the same manner that they would during a normal semester.
• The college offers a full complement of online courses. An important difference between this option and the remote option is that these courses will not tied to a set schedule and that students and faculty would not be interacting with each other in real time as they would with the remote option.
• Students will be able to design a course schedule in a way that allows them to choose among these options. However, not all courses will be offered in these varying formats. Before the start of the semester, students will be provided with a schedule of classes that indicates which courses will be offered in which modalities. They will then have the opportunity to adjust their schedules accordingly.

The college will also have new health and safety protocols that will be put into effect to combat the spread of coronavirus, including mandatory face coverings in all buildings, contactless temperature checks and frequent sanitizing of high touch areas and disinfection of on- and off-campus college facilities.

On Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that a new formula to determine which schools will be allowed to open in the fall. Under Cuomo's plan, schools in regions that are in phase 4 and have an infection rate below five percent over a two-week period can reopening.

For information, visit sjcny.edu/reopen.